1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical communication technology, and more particularly, to an optical communication system suitable for transmission of an optical signal and an optical transmitter used for the optical communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an optical communication technology, there are increasing demands for further cost reduction, simplification, downsizing, and lower power consumption of an optical transmitter and an optical receiver in addition to a speedup of optical communications. In order to meet such demands, an optical communication system using intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) with a simplified configuration is suitable. The intensity modulation/direct detection is a simple modulation/demodulation scheme for an optical signal. In the intensity modulation/direct detection, only the intensity of an optical signal is modulated at a transmitting end, while at a receiving end, an optical intensity of the optical signal received through use of a photodetector, for example, a photodiode, is converted into an electronic signal as it is and subjected to decoding processing. For example, the intensity modulation/direct detection is used for a short distance optical transmission.